


What it is

by jauneclair



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, S4 AU where Madi doesn't get captured by Billy/Rogers, Silver learns how to watch two points in space at the same time, Slight Hurt/Comfort, because he's bad at love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-06 15:40:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11039184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jauneclair/pseuds/jauneclair
Summary: Madi escapes Nassau with Flint and Silver after the Spanish invasion; the three of them engineer for themselves a different ending.





	What it is

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ryuutsu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryuutsu/gifts).



"No sign of Rackham?"

The cabin is quiet apart from the ordinary creaking of the ship and the sound of Silver dragging a cloth through the basin of water on the table.

"No." Flint shuts the door and approaches the cot as Silver turns back to Madi's unconscious form, stretched out beneath one of Flint's blankets. "How is she?"

"She woke up for a few moments," Silver says, quietly. All the times that Flint had wished Silver's mouth to cease its constant nonsense, and now all he wants is to hear Silver speak again. "She asked for you and Eleanor Guthrie."

Flint swallows down a sudden lump in his throat. "And what did you tell her?"

"Nothing. She fell back to sleep immediately after I had her drink."

The water that Silver rings out of the cloth is soot black. He draws it over Madi's forehead again, leaning over her. Flint can't remember a time that Silver looked this intent about anything, not even learning how to fight and not die.

"And how are you?"

Silver pauses as he brings the cloth to Madi's neck. His face is mostly turned away from Flint and he's silent for several long moments, before he resumes cleaning away the dirt and soot and blood from Madi's skin.

Flint swallows and reaches out. His hand lingers in the space between Silver's body and his own for a moment as his mind hesitates. Then it comes to rest on Silver's shoulder.

"I believe," Flint says, "that she will be alright."

Silver gives the smallest of nods. One of Madi's hands remains pressed between both of his own.

Flint's hand squeezes Silver's shoulder briefly, barely, and then he withdraws, to see to matters on deck.

* * *

If Silver sleeps that night, it must be in the chair. Flint sleeps on the seat beneath the window and when he wakes, his quartermaster is still sitting in the same position that he'd been in when Flint turned in. When Flint returns, mid-morning, from speaking with DeGroot about their course, Silver still doesn't seem to have moved.

Flint makes a careful approach.

"I think it would be good if you spoke to the men." Good for whom, Flint isn't entirely sure and doesn't say. "Make your presence known. For a little bit."

"You think?"

Silver is all red eyes and soft voice, looking up at him. It makes Flint's insides shake like a leaf in a breeze - the wrongness of how young Silver looks, how tormented he apparently feels. The Spanish were never a large factor in his invasion plan, at least not initially or so soon. But here is an even larger failure in his accounting, in his preparations, that perhaps would have doomed them as surely as the Spanish soldiers surging over Nassau's shores. His pirate king wasn't ready for the role.

 _Perhaps he never wanted it,_ part of his mind says. But - hadn't that been the point? Only someone who'd never wanted it could be trusted. On that, he and Billy Bones had been in rare total agreement.

He tries to overlay this Silver with the memory of the man who had smashed Dufresne's head and finds that it doesn't balance.

Flint is still Silver's captain.

"I do think," he says at last, catching the plaintive look that Silver throws at Madi's resting form. "She's not going anywhere."

Silver is still staring at her.

"John."

Silver looks up, startled. Flint's not sure when the last time he said Silver's first name, or if this is the first, even.

But it seems to work: Silver nods, not entirely looking at Flint, and grabs his crutch from where it leans up against the wall.

"Will you stay with her? Please?"

There are no objections that immediately spring to mind. And truthfully, he could use the rest. He can't remember the last time he actually sat down.

So Flint occupies the chair that Silver just vacated as the cabin door closes. His knees brush up against the side of the cot. The cabin is warm: he thinks he might like to open the window, maybe, but he is dozing before he can even finish the thought.

* * *

He wakes to a touch on his hand and a creaking voice that whispers, "Captain."

Flint's eyes fly open. Madi grasps for his right hand as his left scrambles for the cup of water that Silver left on the table. She is pushing herself up to a half-sitting position before Flint can stop her, so he holds the cup to her lips as she drains it.

He sets the cup aside; Madi lays back against the pillows, coughing once or twice.

"I am glad you are here," she says. She stares at the ceiling before looking straight at him. "Eleanor Guthrie saved my life."

He'd wondered as much. He stares down at Madi's hand in his.

"She's dead, isn't she?"

He meets Madi's eyes - she deserves nothing less. "Yes."

He leaves back the rest for now. He's not sure he's ready to share that.

Madi sighs. Her eyes drop to their hands, and Flint looks, too: her fingers are smoothing gently across his knuckles. "I know she did much to damage our cause. I know she allied herself with everything we are pledged to oppose. But I regret that this is where her story ended. I think - you understand."

Flint nods, unable to speak.

"I am sure she believed that her intentions were for good," Madi says. "That they were born out of love and not hate. But even love, misused and misdirected, can do ill. Do you understand what I speak of?"

 _She knows,_ he thinks. Madi is - intelligent. Not just clever, in the way Silver is, but wise. He and Eleanor always shared certain similarity of character, he has to admit - and for Madi to draw a line between the two of them so clearly -

"I am talking about John," Madi says.

He sits back, frowning. "Silver?"

"You see how he has not left my side. Earlier, when you were held in the fort, he asked me if he would be enough for me if the war went away." She takes a deep breath. "His love for us may become a lever. And I would like to prevent that lever from being used by the wrong person to split us apart."

" _Us?_ " Flint asks.

"Captain," Madi says, squeezing his hand. "He did not bear the loss of his leg for me. He did not become a pirate king because it was what I wished of him. It was not me he met, every day on that hill for weeks."

"And look where I have led him," Flint spits.

Cool fingers touch his cheek, turning his face back to hers. "No place where he did not willingly follow you."

Before Flint can respond, he hears the tell-tale thump of the crutch outside his cabin. He's leaning backwards, Madi's fingers slipping from face, as the cabin door opens and admits Silver.

His quartermaster freezes, staring at them.

"You should've - you didn't send for me," Silver says and hobbles over.

"You have been at my side the whole time," Madi says, smiling. "Surely you must need a break from my company?"

Silver just says, "No," as he leans in to kiss her.

This is probably the appropriate time to make an exit, but before Flint can try to scoot the chair away, the fingers of Madi's hand tighten around his own.

Silver's fingers trace the shell of her ear. "You were very poor company, though."

Madi's smile grows wider, but then it brings on a coughing fit. Flint moves to refill her empty cup, but Silver beats him to it, saying, "Let me, captain, please. I can do it."

So he keeps holding Madi's hand while Silver ambles to the other side of the cabin, refills the cup from the ewer, and returns to press the cup to her lips as she sips from it in between coughs. When the fit abates, he asks, "I suppose you'd like something to eat, too?"

"Yes." She doesn't try to smile the way she did before, but her eyes are soft. "Poor company, and all."

Silver leans in to kiss her again, this time on her forehead.

"Don't go anywhere," Silver says, halfway to the door. "Either of you."

"You see?" she says when they're alone again. "I think he is unused to loving people. But that does not mean we should not try."

* * *

Their return to Maroon Island is wrapped in so much chaos that Flint nearly forgets he'd agreed to Madi's plan, until he receives her summons a few days later.

When he arrives at her hut, she is sitting at her desk, writing. Silver is on the bed, his shirt off, reading aloud from _Don Quixote._

"Captain," Madi says, rising, as he enters.

He swallows, the nerves he'd been staving off with the demanding logistics of war plans returning to the fore. Silver is sitting up in bed, the book slipping from his hands as Madi leads Flint over by the hand.

"What is this?" Silver asks as they sit on the bed, on either side of him. His head swings back and forth between between the two of them; he looks ready to bolt. "Madi - "

"Ssh." She takes his face in both her hands, smoothing her thumbs along his brows. "Captain Flint told me that he told you once that you needed to learn how to watch two points in space at the same time. Well, I have decided that you need more practice."

"Practice?" Silver echoes, daring a glance at him.

"Mm-hmm." Madi kisses Silver, warm and practiced and slow, and it makes Flint's insides feel like honey, to get to witness this - to have a chance to love Silver like this.

Silver grapples for his hand.

His quartermaster pants as Madi breaks off the kiss. He's staring at Flint the way he did in the Wrecks, when they'd rescued him from the Redcoats.

"Captain? You…you agree with her?"

Flint uses their joined hands to pull Silver onto his lap. His free hand tangles in that wild mess of curls, tugging Silver's head so that their lips nearly touch.

"I do," Flint says, and devours him.

Silver keens into his mouth, a desperate, needy little noise that is matched by the way he plasters himself flat against Flint's chest. " _Please,_ captain," he begs when Flint pauses. Silver's lips chase his as Flint's hand roam over every inch of Silver's bare back, his neck, the coarse fabric of his trousers stretched over his ass. His hands finally settle on the base of Silver's neck and the sweat-slicked small of his back, keeping him perfectly pressed up against him as he explores Silver's mouth.

Silver tastes like the future.

Madi's fingers run through Silver's hair, and it just makes him moan louder into Flint's mouth. Flint drinks up every little sound Silver makes; maps out the way Silver's body writhes as Madi bites into his shoulder, snakes an arm around his waist as Flint kisses him.

"He'll learn," she whispers over Silver's shoulder.

Flint doesn't intend to stop until he does.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Title is taken from a [lovely poem by Eric Fried](http://poet-in-residence.blogspot.com/2009/06/coming-soon-erich-fried.html) that is worth a read ;)


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